Day 121 & 122: Shower and kitchen cabinets

On Thursday and Friday, Joshua finished the shower tile work. Below is a pic of the completed floor. I'm trying to build a green home, but this tile work is going to make me take longer showers :-)


Alan continued to install the kitchen and vanity cabinets on Thursday and Friday while I started laying out plumbing for the heating system in the utility room. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 120: Shower floor and downspouts

On Wednesday, Joshua continued work on the shower floor tiles. All of the material used for tiling the shower is leftover scraps from local kitchen countertop fabricators. Joshua's art is to cut the stone and create a beautiful tile mosaic with the pieces. Here is a pic of the work in progress.

Marty, Georg and I installed downspouts. Here is a pic of the souteast corner.

I finally removed all of the tarps protecting the south wall lime plaster while it dried. Below is a pic of that wall from the southwest. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 118 & 119: Shower, downspouts and electrical

On Monday, Joshua completed installing tile on the shower walls while I cut triangular tile pieces for the shower floor. I sprayed salt water on the copper downspouts to accelerate patina development. Here is a pic of the southwest shower corner followed by a pic of the downspouts.


On Tuesday, Joshua started working on the shower floor. I continued spraying the downspouts with saltwater. Erik stopped by and installed a few outdoor lights and outlets. Below is a pic of the entry porch lights at night. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 117: More interior finishes

On Friday, interior finish work continued:

• Joshua continued tiling the shower walls
• Erik continued electrical wiring
• Raphael and I applied gypsum plaster to a wall in the utility room
• AT&T installed the phone line

Below is a pic of the exterior west wall with the finish grade. It is exciting to see the end in sight. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 116: Final grading

On Thursday, Steve did final site grading. All of the walls have been backfilled with soil to the final height, and surface storm water drainage paths are complete all around the home. Here is a pic of the east wall showing final grading to compare with yesterday's pic.

Here is a pic of the kitchen peninsula cabinets from Live Oak Design in process.

I'll close with a pic of Joshua's shower tiling in process, WOW! Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 115: Site cleanup and interior finishes

Tasks from Wednesday:

• site cleanup in preparation for final grading
• kitchen cabinet installation began
• shower tile work continued
• electrical fixture, switch and outlet installation continued
  

I'll close with a pic of the east wall which I havn't shown for some time. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 114: Plastering completed

On Tuesday, Joshua, Trevor, Marty, Raphael, Georg and I applied the finish coat of lime plaster to the exterior of the south wall. This was a monumental day being the completion of plastering on the home. Below is a pic of Raphael, Marty, me and Joshua at the southwest corner. You can see that everyone’s clothing has taken on a yellow tinge. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 112 & 113: Exterior plaster

On Friday, Joshua, Trevor, Marty, Raphael and I applied the finish coat of lime plaster to the exterior of the east, west and utility room walls. On Monday the same crew applied the finish coat of plaster to the exterior of the north wall. The plaster has an integrated mineral tint, so painting is not required. I think the color and finish are beautiful. Below is a pic of the west (right) and north (left) walls. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 111: Railings

On Thursday, Marty, Georg and I installed the salvaged railing pieces I cut yesterday. It is surprising how well the old railings go with the new staircase. Here is a pic of the loft taken from the kitchen followed by one taken on the loft looking west.


Joshua continued installing tile in the shower. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 110: Spiral staircase and downspouts

On Wednesday, we installed the spiral staircase that was made by Stocklin Iron in Santa Rosa, CA. Here is a pic of the staircase taken from the dining room.

Marty installed copper downspouts between the gutters and drains. Here is a pic of the downspout on the northwest corner of the home.

Other tasks from day 110:

• Erik the electrician continued installing outlets, switches and light fixtures
• Joshua began installing tile in the shower
• I started cutting salvage railing pieces to fit the edge of the loft

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 109: Interior cleanup and electrical

On Tuesday, we cleaned up the interior. We removed all of the masking materials and swept the floors. It is really nice to see the wooden beams exposed again (it has been a while).

Erik the electrician began installing outlets and switches. Below is a pic from the entry door looking at the south wall between the dining room and family room.Can you spot the one completed wall switch? Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 108: Ceiling paint and soffits

On Monday, Marty sprayed the ceilings with 2 coats of zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) paint (he sprayed the ceilings on Sunday with zero VOC primer). Here is a pic of the ceiling over the kitchen.

Justin, Marty, Raphael, Georg and I installed corrugated metal soffit material around the perimeter of the home. We are pleased with the results. Here is a pic of the northwest corner soffit.

Green comments for today:

• Consider low or zero VOC primers and paints for improved indoor air quality compared to common products.
• Where appropriate, choose finish materials that are durable and recyclable. For example, my soffit material is galvanized steel. It should require little to no maintenance over the life of the home. The steel can be recycled or salvaged when the home is someday deconstructed (hopefully long after I am gone).

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 107: Kitchen cabinets and site cleanup

Friday was a nice light day after 3 intense days of plastering. Alan Dodd from Live Oak Design installed the bases of the kitchen cabinets.

Trevor and I did a bit of site cleanup while Joshua applied waterproofing to the shower floor. We pulled the masking tape and plastic protecting the soffit area to reveal our plaster work up top. We are pleased with the results. Below is a pic of the northwest corner and porch area (please ignore the temporary downspouts). Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 106: Exterior plastering…and solar panels

On Thursday, we applied the 2nd of 3 coats of lime plaster to the south wall.

The guys from Independent Energy Systems installed 22 Sharp 224 watt solar panels to the tilt racks on Tuesday - I totally forgot to take a picture. Below is a pic of the south wall showing the plaster and solar panels. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 104 an 105: Exterior plastering

Monday we had the day off because of rain. On Tuesday, we applied the 2nd of 3 coats of lime plaster to the exterior of the east and west walls. This is called the straightening coat because the plasterers try to straighten out imperfections in the wall in preparation for the finish coat. I worked until 8:30 PM on this coat, so I didn't post Tuesday.

On Wednesday, we applied the 2nd of 3 coats of lime plaster to the exterior of the north wall. The final step is to scratch the coat to provide a mechanical key for the finish coat to latch onto. Here is a pic of the southwest corner of the home. Notice the difference between the horizontal scratched lines on the west wall (left) and the bumpy texture of the scratch coat on the south wall (right).

I’ll close with a pic of me in front of the west wall near the end of day 105. Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 103: Interior plastering and ceiling texture

On Friday Joshua, Trevor and I completed interior gypsum wall plastering. It is great to have all of the APEX blocks finally covered. Here is a pic of the sliding glass patio door on the bedroom south wall.

Marty applied and knocked down ceiling texture while Trevor, Raphael and I shuffled scaffolding around. Between the rain this week and the water evaporating from the plaster, the house is humid like Florida. Below is a pick of Marty up top with Trevor and Raphael below. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Green comment for today:
When selecting finishes, especially those inside the home, consider the simplest materials with the least amount of additives. This will result in the best indoor air quality. For example, my interior wall finish is 99% gypsum plaster (plaster of Paris).

I chose to avoid premix or ready mix materials because they contain vinyl compounds which act as binders. Once applied, the Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) portion of the binder will evaporate into your home atmosphere potentially affecting respiration in folks with chemical sensitivities. It is true that the VOC concentration will reduce dramatically over time, but it is best to not allow the material in the home if it is not needed.

To determine what is in a product, look at the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). This can be confusing when a manufacturer decides to include a series of products on one MSDS. You sometimes see the words "may contain one or more of the following" in the Composition/Ingredients section of the MSDS. In this case, you need to call technical support to see if the particular product you are interested contains any offending ingredients.

Day 102: South wall interior plastering

The power was back on Thursday. We applied gypsum plaster to all surfaces of the south wall except in the bedroom. Here is a pic of the south wall in the family room and loft.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to leave a comment.

Day 101: Power outage plastering

We had a rain delay on Tuesday as the remains of Super Typhoon Melor hit the California coast. The job site held up to the storm pretty well considering we had bare soil everywhere. Power was out at the site Tuesday and Wednesday. We rented a generator which ran the plaster mixer, work light and radio. The generator did not produce enough current to run the compressor, so we could not use the plaster sprayer. We plastered the east wall of the loft by hand and called it a day. Below is a pic of the wall taken from the southwest corner of the loft. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.

Day 100: Interior plastering

On Monday we applied gypsum plaster to the interior north wall. It is nice to see the cold looking APEX blocks covered with a uniform finish. Here is a pic of the great room portion of the wall taken from the loft.

The guys from Independent Energy Systems were back again today to install another rack for the photovoltaic array. Thanks for reading. I appreciate your comments.

Day 99: Interior plastering

On Friday we applied gypsum plaster to the interior west wall. Here is a pick of Marty, Raphael, Joshua and Ben in action.

Here is a pic of Cindy in the dining room on Saturday after the wall has partially dried.

Here is a closeup pic of the kitchen window bullnose. This detail gives the house a nice old-world feel. Thanks for reading. I enjoy reading your comments.